A straight-through tax can help to lower carbon emissions by reducing taxes on work (e.g. income tax and payroll tax) while increasing taxes on consumption (e.g. carbon tax).

 

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Notes:    "Why tax good things when you can tax bad things, like emissions?" ask Yoram Bauman and Shi-Ling Hsu.

 

A straight-through tax can appeal to conservatives who don't want additional taxes and who dislike taxes that discourage people from working.

We currently tax things – having a job (income tax), creating jobs (corporate tax), owning a home (property tax), and engaging in economic activity (sales tax) – that are good for society. We also tax things that cost society as a whole – alcohol and tobacco and fatty, unhealthy food and environmental degradation. New taxes on carbon emissions can be balanced by reduced taxes on jobs.

Former GOP Rep. Bob Inglis is launching a campaign, the Energy & Enterprise Initiative, that proposes:

A new tax on carbon pollution or gasoline consumption, paired with a cut in the income or payroll tax, creating a revenue-neutral, market-driven solution to an environmental problem while cutting taxes that conservatives dislike.

[Yoram Bauman, an Ph.D. economist who moonlights as a professional comedian, is featured in our Humor section.   See "Yoram Bauman:  The Stand-Up (Climate) Economist."]

Sources: "The Most Sensible Tax of All," Bauman & Hsu, NYT 7/4/12 via Climate Progress and Thisness of a That

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